


Same Country!

by Qwerty_2poynt0



Series: Rainbow Crows [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Everyone Is Gay, Fluff, Harassment, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, Solidarity, Team Bonding, but I wanted to tag it nonetheless, but like still, it's all of them - Freeform, it's not intense I promise, well except 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:22:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27692063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qwerty_2poynt0/pseuds/Qwerty_2poynt0
Summary: "GUYS!!" Hinata yelled as everyone began to clean up. The gym paused and he filled his lungs with as much air as he could get. "I'M PAN!!!!"This is just me being mushy about finding community and dumping a bunch of LGBT headcanons onto my boys. (The title makes a lot more sense when you read it)
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou & Shimizu Kiyoko, Kageyama Tobio & Shimizu Kiyoko
Series: Rainbow Crows [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025475
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	Same Country!

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who caught that good old fashioned Haikyuu brainrot

Shouyo leapt up to bap his hand against the top of the doorframe at the school entrance, jogging in toward his classroom. He felt it in his bones, today was gonna be a good day.

And then he saw Shimizu-senpai.

"You really got no business being so pretty without any boyfriend to look good for."

Shouyo's eyebrow twitched angrily as he saw his manager's normally impassive face crumple just slightly at the edges. Some guy had boxed her against the wall, and all the other students in the hall seemed to think it was none of their business as they all scuttled to class.

"I..." Shimizu's voice wobbled slightly and Hinata dashed in, working himself into the space between her and whoever this asshole was.

"Hey senpai, isn't the third year hallway a little far from here? Maybe I ought to walk you there so you don't get too held up to get to class on time."

He stared the other student dead in the eye, unflinching at the annoyed, clearly entitled expression on the guy's face.

"I... That would be nice, thank you Hinata." Shimizu said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder.

And so, the two of them quickly and silently walked toward Shimizu's classroom. After a minute or so, Shouyo felt a need to fill the silence.

"Y'know I always think Nishinoya's mostly being dramatic when he talks about being captain of the Kiyoko Protection Squad! You never really seem like you need protecting most of the time."

He meant it as a compliment, but Shimizu shrank a bit.

"I do try to get out of situations like that on my own. Although it's usually difficult."

Shouyo set his face with a determined look and leaned emphatically toward his manager.

"Well don't worry! You'll always have us to back you up! I'm pretty sure all the upperclassmen on the team have a sorta sixth sense for this stuff."

She gave him a small half smile and he couldn't help blushing just a little. Shimizu had this way of making someone she smiled at feel special.

"Perhaps you have it too." She said.

"I- I wouldn't say that! I was just kinda lucky today."

There was another stretch of quiet as they started to ascend the stairs. Shouyo would really have to hustle getting back to his own classroom, but he didn't particularly care.

"Are you so closed off all the time because that kind of thing keeps happening?" Shouyo wondered. Shimizu faltered for a second.

"I..." She continued up the stairs. "That isn't the reason, but it's started to contribute the more it happens."

"Well... why not just come out swinging? Say 'No! Get outta my face!' And like, tell 'em to step off?" Even as he said it, he knew something like that sounded nothing like her.

"It really isn't so simple..."

"Hm."

They reached the top of the stairs and Shimizu paused.

"Sometimes I wonder if having a boyfriend would get them off my back."

"Well you've got a great big chunk of everyone in school wanting to date you! You could do that!"

Shimizu sighed. "It's really not that simple, Hinata."

"Why not?"

"Because I-..." Shimizu tensed, and she looked at him a moment with such monumental apprehension that he just had to reach out and place a hand on her shoulder. He was so relieved when that seemed to do the trick and she relaxed. "People expect certain things from you. When you're dating. Things I know I won't be willing to give."

"Do they really?"

"Yes. The very idea of dating, it... it comes with certain connotations. You don't do the things with someone you date that you do with someone you're friends with, and those things aren't things I want to do with anyone. And if someone were to expect that from me, I... I just wouldn't be comfortable."

"Oh...." Shouyo couldn't say he'd put near this much thought into dating as a concept, but the way she said it, he just _felt_ what she meant. It resonated with some specific piece of him in a way he couldn't quite describe. She started down the hallway.

"We should really get to class. You don't have to walk me the rest of the way."

"Of course I do!" Shouyo caught up to her. "After that, I gotta make sure no one ever makes you uncomfortable again if I can help it!"

Shimizu blinked at him, then turned away, smiling ever so softly to herself.

"What an ally."

Something about her wording kinda niggled at Shouyo for the rest of the day. As he practiced his spikes during lunch, he felt..... something. He just wasn't sure what it was.

By afternoon practice, it had grown into a flickering candle of curiosity, and after, he approached her.

"What'd you mean 'ally'?"

Shimizu blinked at him and he could feel Nishinoya and Tanaka watching the two of them closely.

"I... well I'm not sure I follow."

"You said 'ally' like... like you're one foreign country and I'm another and we came to some kinda official agreement."

Shimizu furrowed her eyebrows.

"I... more meant it... to mean your show of support."

"Well, yeah, but..." Shouyo's face scrunched up in thought. "It just... feels weird. 'Cause... we're like..... the same. Somehow. I think?"

Shimizu's eyes went wide and she looked more shocked than Shouyo had ever seen her. About then was when the self proclaimed Captain and Vice Captain of the Kiyoko Protection Squad intervened.

"My my Hinata," Nishinoya slid in next to him, "What kinda proposition would make our darling Kiyoko so surprised~?"

"You tryna put the moves on her, little man?" Tanaka elbowed him. Shouyo sputtered a moment.

"No- I- I just- She said something earlier and it hit weird and I don't know why."

That seemed to stump the two, because it took them a second or two to process. In the time it took them though, Shimizu had bid the boys a quiet farewell and left to go home.

~*~

The next morning, Shouyo sought her out deliberately. His thinking on it hadn't quite gotten him anywhere and he needed to figure this out, he just had to. He found her about halfway to her classroom and fell into step next to her, much to her surprise.

"Hinata, you really don't have to do this every morning."

"Can't I do it 'cause I want to, not 'cause I have to?" It wasn't a lie, but it also wasn't the main reason he'd come along. Shimizu studied him a moment and returned her eyes forward.

"I guess so."

A lull came in before Shouyo pushed forward with the first thing that came to his mind.

"I can't get it out of my head that we're similar."

Briefly, she pulled out that wide eyed look again.

"Similar how?"

"That's the thing, I'm not sure!" Shouyo threw his hands out, waving them for emphasis. "It's just, after what you said yesterday morning, something in me was like 'Hey! That! That's important!' And I don't know why!"

"Could it be..." Shimizu swallowed and seemed to survey the area for eavesdroppers before leaning closer and keeping her voice low. "Is it that you feel the same way about those things as I do?"

Something about her gave off a special kind of nervous that Shouyo wasn't sure he'd seen before. From anyone, let alone his cool headed, graceful manager.

"I don't think that's it." He matched her volume. "It's not that certain specific stuff about dating makes me too uncomfortable to want it."

In the brief pause an idea came to Shouyo.

"Maybe if I knew just what those things were, I'd know why I feel like we're similar!"

The way Shimizu pressed her lips together upon hearing that, Shouyo could feel her stomach twisting. A purposeful thump sounded in his chest. Whatever this was, it was a huge deal.

"I... do you... The main reason those things wrapped up in seriously dating... and the way people might look at me... they make me so uncomfortable... because I'm ace."

Shouyo blinked.

"But Asahi's the ace."

There was a beat of silence between them before Shimizu laughed softly and Shouyo suddenly felt very silly and cotton headed. What'd he say that was so funny? He almost preferred Kageyama calling him a stupid idiot.

"No, I... right. You wouldn't know. Ace is..." She looked around once again and went even quieter. "Ace is a shortening for 'asexual'. It... it means..."

Shouyo's mind connected a few of the dots and he started to get excited, his embarrassment instantly forgotten.

"Is it like pansexual?" He tried to keep his voice at a whisper, but the more his mind got rolling, the harder it was to keep it down.

"Um... it might... be a bit of the opposite. Of that."

Shouyo blinked slowly, taking in the new information and his smile returned full force as he finally figured it all out.

"That's so cool!!"

The utterly baffled look on Shimizu's face gave Shouyo no pause.

"I knew it! I knew we were similar!" His volume control was all but forgotten and Shimizu smacked a hand over his mouth. She looked like twenty things were swirling through her brain at once.

"Hinata, what are you talking about? And keep your voice down."

He squirmed his face from her hold and bounced on his toes, trying to get the excitement out in a way that wouldn't make his voice louder. 

"I'm pan!!! That's how we're similar we're both... we're both like!!! The same!!!!!"

Shimizu looked almost dizzy.

"You... what?"

He grabbed her hands, he was practically vibrating with a special excitement he didn't realize he could feel.

"I'm pansexual!" His voice squeaked with the effort to stay quiet like Shimizu insisted. "And you're asexual!! That's like!!! The coolest thing!!! We're the same!!"

Shimizu's eyelids fluttered and she seemed to finally fully grasp the situation.

"Well... technically we're the opposite..."

"But we're in the same country now!!!"

Shimizu's face scrunched slightly before she giggled once again and slipped her hands out of Shouyo's.

"I suppose we are. You're now a fellow member instead of an ally."

Shouyo kept on beaming just about the whole rest of the day. Perhaps that feeling he'd gotten yesterday morning was actually for today.

~*~

During morning practice the next day, an idea sprung into Shouyo's head. He was still so happy that he'd found out he had something in common with his senpai, and he wondered if maybe, just maybe, he had that in common with someone else on the team.

As everyone was leaving, he once again fell into step near Shimizu, and once the two of them were safely out of earshot from Tanaka and Nishinoya, he whispered.

"Should we tell them?"

Shimizu whipped her head around and looked at him like he had a concussion.

"What?"

"About us. About being the same."

"Wh- no. They can't know!"

Shouyo's face fell. "But why not?"

"Hinata, who are you actually out to yet?"

"Out... to..... well, no one technically."

It wasn't necessarily that he was nervous about any consequences, so much as he just didn't date and so never felt the need to explain his sexuality to his nonexistent partner. 

"And you shouldn't put yourself in danger by outing yourself to an entire club of people when you're not sure how they'd react. Or how anyone they share it with will react."

"But they're all really nice..."

"... I think so too. But we can't just announce ourselves from the rooftops or something. Not here, not now."

Shouyo frowned softly and they both dropped the subject. He'd been so excited to try and find out if anyone else was like them. To see if they could expand their country of two. As he ate his lunch, he looked around his classroom. It was possible. It was _likely_ that there were others in that room with him who were the same, and he hadn't realized how much he ached to be known and to know others like him until he got a taste of it.

He slammed down a set from Kageyama, and the sting of the ball against his hand felt so good and cleared his head all at once. Practice was nearly over, and every cell in his body _buzzed_ with a 'must'.

"Alright team! Great practice!" Coach Ukai yelled. Everyone took a collective breath and Shouyo's heart beat hard enough to push at his ribcage.

"GUYS!!" He yelled as everyone began to clean up. The gym paused and he filled his lungs with as much air as he could get. "I'M PAN!!!!"

He looked around to gauge the reactions. There was a lot of shocked and confused expressions ranging from blown away to desperately lost. Some particularly stiff looks came from Ukai and Tsukishima, like they didn't want to give away their real reactions. Shimizu looked like Shouyo had just volunteered for an execution.

"Hinata, the hell are you talking about? You plan to be Peter Pan this halloween or something?" Kageyama was the first to find his tongue and _oh_ did that tongue ever get up to such irritating things.

"No, dumbass!" Shouyo puffed out his cheeks. "I'm saying I'm _pansexual_. Every day of the year."

The utterly bamboozled look on Kageyama's face made Shouyo wonder if that was what he'd looked like when Shimizu told him she was ace.

"Alright kids, as liberating as Hinata's self discovery is, we gotta clean this place up!" Coach Ukai clapped his hands and everyone quickly resumed the takedown.

"It's not a discovery, I've been pan!" He called across the court as he set about picking up stray volleyballs. A shape inside his chest waited; wanting, anticipating as the seconds ticked by. It poured this feeling into his lungs, like he couldn't quite take a complete breath until he got a more concrete reaction. Until he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt.

He caught Shimizu's eye, and she still seemed afraid, her gaze flitting from person to person across the court. Once everything was all cleaned up and the boys all migrated towards the door, Coach Ukai actually stopped them.

"Hinata." Shouyo's back went ramrod straight. "What exactly brought this on?"

"I-I just.... I met someone... who's like me and I thought... I thought if anyone else in the club was, they'd wanna know." He looked around at the team, all of whom seemed to have mostly processed his earlier declaration. Well, all of them are except-

"What is pansexual even supposed to mean?" Kageyama asked incredulously. Shouyo puffed up and rounded on him.

"For your information! It means that I can like anyone!"

"How does there need to be a word for that? Of course you can like anyone." Kageyama frowned.

"No! Like!!! Like 'dating' like! When you look at someone and go 'Woah!' and 'Haaaah!!' and 'Eeep!!!'"

"Oh my god, use Actual Words, please."

"How do you not get it???"

"Aw, cut the big guy some slack, Hinata." Nishinoya slid in. "Everyone's gotta hear something for the first time at some point."

Hinata pouted at Nishinoya who simply booped him on the nose.

"But I seriously don't get it." Kageyama said. "People just. End up liking other people and if they end up with one person it's gay and if they end up with another person it's not. Right?"

Just about everyone on the team looked at Kageyama like he'd just grown a second head.

"My dude, you are so out of touch." Tanaka said, slinging an arm around Kageyama's shoulders.

"What? I thought that's how it works!!"

"Well it's not and I'm leaving." Tsukishima started for the door.

"But Tsukishima, you haven't said anything yet!" Shouyo said. He hadn't realized he'd rushed over and grabbed Tsukishima's wrist until he was point blank on a steely glare.

"And I don't plan to. Just because you decided you're out to the whole team doesn't mean we have to stand around and draw confessions out of everyone else. Now get off me."

"But wouldn't you want to know?! If someone was the same as you, and you never thought anyone anywhere near you was, wouldn't you want to know?"

Tsukishima stilled and stood silent for a moment.

"Hey, c'mon carrot top, don't pester the guy." Ukai said. "If he doesn't wanna know and doesn't wanna say, he can go."

Shouyo reluctantly let go of Tsukishima and stepped back. The silence among them was almost oppressive. If Tsukishima left, it meant all of them could just. Leave and drop this. But Shouyo didn't want to drop it! He had to know. He had to confirm that he and Shimizu weren't just a country of two in this entire team. In this entire school!

"Tsukki." Yamaguchi stepped up next to his friend and they seemed to have a conversation with their eyes for a moment.

"... I'm not talking." Tsukishima finally said. "I'm staying to listen."

Shouyo beamed before spinning around to face the whole team.

"So! We know I'm pan!"

"I still don't get what that means." Kageyama groused. Nishinoya elbowed him.

"Does anyone else think they're the same?"

There was a stretch of silence, during which Shouyo's smile never faltered, although something inside him attempted to tug it down. He noticed Tanaka and Nishinoya sharing a look and seeming to come to some sort of agreement.

"Well," Nishinoya started, "As pretty as the pan flag colors are..."

"Noya and I are some bi guys!"

Shouyo felt his entire body light up and he zipped over excitedly.

"Oh my god!!!!"

The three of them shouted and jumped and gestured wildly for a good little while, and their enthusiasm seemed to dissipate a bit of the tension that had formed amongst the club.

"The second years went and beat me to the punch." Sugawara said as the excitement died down a little. The three's eyes were on him in an instant.

"Oh~?" Nishinoya asked.

"I'm..." Suga took a deep breath and said very clearly and levelly, "I'm gay."

"I knew it!" Nishinoya yelled and turned to Tanaka. "You owe me ramen!!"

"Wh-!!!" Suga flushed, "You mean you were betting on if I was gay or not???"

"It was never like, _official_." Tanaka said.

"But we've had a sorta running debate on it."

Suga probably would have said something more if Shouyo hadn't practically tackled him in a hug. He was so so filled up with so many bright sunny emotions because there really were more of them on the team!!! He and Shimizu really weren't the only ones!!

"I never even thought something like this could make me so happy!!!!" Shouyo bounced around, needing some kind of physical outlet for all this bubbling, swishing, shining excitement completely taking him over. It must have been contagious, because Sugawara smiled so warmly at him.

"Okay, okay." Coach Ukai's voice cut through the boys. "This is very good and sweet, but we should all be shipping out, you all have busses to catch and dinners to get to."

"Yes sir!" The boys all replied. The coach turned to open the double doors for them and stood in the doorway a moment.

"And for the record, I'm bi."

Shouyo didn't think it was possible to be this happy outside of winning a match.

~*~

"Pronoun check!!" Everyone in the gym jumped upon hearing Azumane's voice. Morning practice was just about to get into swing.

"What?" Daichi blinked at him. Azumane's voice immediately shrank to its normal size.

"W-well it's just... last night, when Hinata and the others came out-

"I was never in any closets to begin with!"

"Shut up, Hinata!" Kageyama hissed.

"Um... well it's just.... I figured... I-I did a little research and I think I might be pan? Maybe? But that's not the point. My point is, if the full acronym is LGB **T** , then shouldn't we check to see if anyone... wants us to like. Address them differently?"

There was a beat of quiet before Shouyo pumped his fist up.

"Yeah! We can't just forget!"

"But what if they don't wanna come out yet?" Yamaguchi spoke up. Shouyo noticed Tsukishima turn to him with this... particular look in his eye.

"Well I mean they don't gotta!" Azumane waved his hands frantically in front of him. "I just... thought we should give them an opportunity is all. And we might do it again every now and then, so they can say it later too. I don't... wanna pressure anyone."

"It's cool, Asahi," Nishinoya said, reaching up and punching him in the arm. "That's super thoughtful!"

"Well I uhh... I-I can start! I... still go by he/him."

"IIII..." Nishinoya seemed to think to himself a moment, "Actually wanna experiment, use any pronouns you like for me!"

The pronoun check popcorned from one teammate to another, nothing else changing, until it landed very last on Tsukishima from Yamaguchi.

"..." He set his shrewd eyes about the room. "He/him."

And that was that on that.

~*~

Tobio wasn't really sure what to make of the past two weeks. It felt like some core truth about himself had been completely thrown into question.

Kinoshita and Daichi were apparently the only ones firm in their, as Nishinoya had put it, 'cishet drudgery'. Everyone else was either trying to figure it out or deliberately avoiding talking about it with the others. Okay, so maybe Tobio and Tsukishima were the only ones actively avoiding it, but still! In fact, the only person who had opined on these things less than Tobio and Tsukishima was...

"Shimizu-senpai."

She turned to Tobio with her characteristic unreadable expression.

"I... uh..." Why had he done this? This was a terrible idea. What made him think she'd have answers for him? Just because she was a third year? The manager? "... Everyone's always talking about... the sexuality and gender stuff. But you don't."

She took a step back from him. "I just... don't think it needs my input."

"So you don't know about this stuff."

"... Well... no, it's not that. It's just... a lot. And I'm not a lot."

"So you do know?" He heard the hope rising in his voice and had the sense to feel embarrassed. He felt like a clueless puppy.

"I... if you have questions you're not comfortable going to the others with... I might be able to help you."

"... Is... is there a word... for when you don't really look at anyone and feel attracted to them?"

She blinked at Tobio a bit doelike. Then she smiled. Truly smiled at him. He understood for a moment why the team seemed so devoted to fawning over her. He felt safe with her smile.

"Asexual. We're asexual."

**Author's Note:**

> Now if you're observant, you might think 'Hey, Tsukishima's clearly has something going on. What's that about?"  
>  And to that I say: You'll have to wait and see.
> 
> _____
> 
> ♡A few fun reminders♡  
>  \- You can toss me a tip on **[my Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/starryjam)** if you feel so inclined  
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>  That's all from me. Thanks so so much for reading, and have a super shimmery day~♡


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